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Chapter 3
“Miss, the heel of your shoe came off.”
The maid helping Daisy get dressed held up the shoes she had prepared to wear today.
It had seemed unstable for a while now, and apparently the heel had finally reached the end of its lifespan.
“Oh no, you’re right… I really liked those.”
Daisy looked devastated. I had already finished all my work and was leisurely sipping a drink, so I stood up and took the shoes from her.
“I don’t have anything to do anyway, so I’ll go drop them off at the workshop for repairs.”
“Why are you going?”
Daisy, who never really liked seeing me work in the first place, shot me a sharp glare, clearly displeased with my attitude.
“Do you seriously have to act like a ghost who’ll die if you don’t work?”
“What work? This is basically an outing.”
When I joked around, Daisy puffed out her cheeks and sharply turned her head away.
I’d seen this behavior enough times by now. Chuckling as usual, I found another pair of shoes that matched her dress and placed them in front of her.
“This humble servant will hurry back after fixing them, milady. Please endure these for today?”
“I’m not a milady!”
Here we go again. Seriously, she acted like a stubborn four-year-old sometimes.
I ignored her dramatics and walked past. The maid fixing Daisy’s hair was barely suppressing her laughter.
Daisy acted perfectly refined and composed in front of others, but strangely enough, she became especially spoiled only around me.
Probably because I was the only person she could completely let her guard down around.
It was honestly flattering that Daisy showed me sides of herself she didn’t even show her lover—but at the same time, it was burdensome.
I’m not your male lead, my friend… I’m telling you, I’m leaving this mansion someday.
“Anyway, hurry up and get ready to go out. I’m going to get some fresh air.”
“Then buy ten snacks while you’re out!”
“If I do that, I won’t be able to come back for three days.”
As I stuffed the shoes into my pocket and joked around, Daisy sulkily corrected herself.
“T-then just two!”
Recently, Daisy’s emotions had been all over the place. It was probably because her relationship with Lenox had hit rough waters.
Yeah, around this point in the story, Lenox’s previously nonexistent fiancée probably appears and starts causing trouble.
Daisy usually told me every little pointless detail of her life, but strangely, she rarely talked about her love life, so I didn’t know exactly what was going on.
But I had knowledge from the original game!
In romance stories, a male lead’s fiancée was usually just a temporary obstacle for the heroine. Still, watching Daisy suffer was another matter entirely, so it bothered me too.
What? You’re asking if it hurts watching your favorite character date someone else?
I knew my place. I was just an extra.
It was more than enough for me that my favorite character and my second favorite—the heroine—were in love. I had absolutely no intention of stealing the heroine’s place like in some cliché romance fantasy.
Lenox dating me…? I literally couldn’t even imagine it.
After over ten years of fangirling, you eventually just start wishing your fave would meet a good person and live happily ever after while you go live your own life. That’s the true heart of an otaku, isn’t it?
The happy ending I cried over, cheered for, and desperately hoped for… was their happy ending.
Not getting tangled up with a background character like me.
And you know what? Watching your favorite and second favorite fall in love together is ridiculously satisfying.
I forced down the grin threatening to launch me into heaven and finished getting ready to leave.
Daisy still looked sulky. Ah well, guess I’ll humor her.
“Alright then, give me some allowance money.”
I deliberately held out both hands and grinned playfully. Instantly, Daisy’s gloomy face brightened.
Who knew where she pulled it from, but she cheerfully shook a heavy coin pouch.
“Can I give you all of this?”
“One gold coin is already more than enough!”
“Tch.”
Why do you sound disappointed?!
Daisy was always desperate to give me more.
Calling us “friends” almost felt insufficient. If I didn’t know how the game ended, I might’ve genuinely wondered whether Daisy liked me romantically.
Maybe she just wanted to tie me down somehow.
I was always talking about eventually leaving the mansion, while Daisy often said she wanted to stay together forever.
Yeah… honestly, I had no choice but to admit it.
Half my conscience had probably been buried back in Korea.
I latched onto the heroine like a barnacle just to survive, took every benefit I could get, and now that things were getting emotionally uncomfortable, my first instinct was to run away.
And on top of that, I wasn’t even a maid—just a lowly servant girl who only ran a few errands a day while freeloading meals.
Despite that, I got paid several times more than normal servants just because I played the role of “young lady companion.” Wait…
…Uh, I’d like to report a missing conscience.
Trying to suppress my rapidly growing guilt, I quickly forced a smile.
“Daisy, have fun today. You look really pretty.”
If I felt guilty, at least I should throw in some lip service!
“Really?”
“You know I don’t lie.”
Actually, I did lie sometimes, but hey, my conscience was already gone anyway, so let’s keep talking.
As I lightly fixed her messy bangs, the heroine smiled with her eyes curving softly, overflowing with such adorable charm that I almost wanted to pull her into a hug right then and there.
Even the maids watching through the mirror couldn’t hide their warm smiles.
“I like Selus the best.”
“That was sudden. What about Lord Lenox?”
“Len? Hmph… he’s after Mom and Dad!”
How exactly had the main male lead fallen to “that guy”? In the original story he definitely wasn’t treated like this.
Well… he was her boyfriend, so whatever. Smiling faintly, I picked up the shoes and a gold coin.
Offering a silent moment of respect for the male lead’s plummeting status, I ignored Daisy shouting, “Two snacks! No, three!” and left the room.
Now then, what should I eat…?
“Your strawberry cream cheese royal parfait is ready.”
The waitress’s cheerful voice arrived together with the parfait.
But… was this really a parfait?
I froze for a second at the absurdly suspicious size of it.
“Th-thank you…?”
I thanked her and picked up my spoon. Whatever. Let’s just eat first.
I’d dropped off the broken shoes at the workshop earlier, and they told me repairs would take about two hours.
So now I was sitting inside a dessert café I’d been eyeing for a while.
I didn’t particularly love sweets, but if I returned without eating anything, Daisy would probably pout all day.
The parfait glass, which was about the size of my forearm, was admittedly intimidating… but surely something this gigantic counted as three snacks, right? At this calorie level, I could probably skip dinner entirely.
Rolling up my sleeves like I was preparing for battle, I boldly scooped up a huge spoonful of whipped cream and stuffed it into my mouth.
At that moment, it felt like I could hear my blood vessels exploding beside my eardrums.
Wow! Parfait! So sweet!
My tongue felt like it had been marinated in sugar. As I trembled while gripping my spoon tightly, a voice suddenly caught my attention.
“Did you hear?”
That familiar opening line could only mean one thing:
the start of some delicious gossip.
Quietly eating my parfait alone in the corner, I subtly lifted my head toward the neighboring table’s conversation.
I pretended not to care, but honestly, it was impossible not to listen.
“The Grand Duke of the North is coming to the capital this time!”
The Grand Duke of the North?
My ears perked up at the oddly familiar phrase.
Wasn’t “Grand Duke of the North” basically synonymous with things like:
Cold to everyone but warm only to my woman!
A lonely wolf ruling the frozen north with icy eyes and overwhelming martial prowess!
That kind of vibe?
“Ugh, gross… He’s not really coming to look for a bride, is he?”
“My younger sibling’s friend’s cousin’s coworker works near the imperial palace and supposedly saw him once before. They said even seeing his silhouette from behind made them nauseous.”
Side note, but how do gossipers even remember connections like “my sibling’s friend’s cousin’s coworker”?
Anyway, this was getting interesting.
“They say the curse is really that terrible.”
“Apparently. Just thinking about it is disgusting enough.”
The three women continued badmouthing the Grand Duke with horrified expressions.
What kind of curse did this poor guy even have for people to react like that? Honestly, I kind of felt bad for him.
I shoveled away the whipped cream first and popped a strawberry into my mouth. The tartness made my brow furrow automatically.
Lonely, isolated Grand Duke of the North…
Wasn’t this an extremely common fantasy romance cliché? I vaguely remembered these types often appearing as secondary male leads.
Then the heroine appears before the lonely wolf duke, some dramatic incident happens, she shows him kindness, and he falls deeply in lo—
…wait.
As I thought about it, a strange sense of déjà vu hit me.
Hold on. Think carefully. Use your brain, Minselly!
Why did “Grand Duke of the North,” a phrase I almost never heard, feel so familiar?
“The rumors say his face is horribly disfigured!”
“Yeah, that’s why he always wears a mask. Apparently nobody’s ever seen his real face.”
“That’s seriously creepy…”
A cursed Grand Duke of the North who wore a mask because his face was strange, hated by everyone?
Huh?
“…Ah!”
I suddenly shot up from my seat in realization before awkwardly sitting back down after noticing everyone staring.
S-sorry.
Anyway, hearing their conversation caused memories buried deep beneath the surface to come flooding back.
Why had I forgotten him? I’d remembered every other character!
The Grand Duke of the North, Solard Artensia.
He was a hidden capture target whose route only unlocked after clearing all the other male leads.
The other male leads appeared at least once or twice no matter which route you played, but Solard could only barely be encountered through Lenox’s main route.
The reason he was a hidden character wasn’t anything special either—they apparently got the idea late in development and shoved him into the expansion pack at the last minute.
…Wait, where had I heard that? Maybe from the developers’ social media?
Well, whatever. It wasn’t important.
I’d probably forgotten him because I’d never cared much about him in the first place. I couldn’t even remember ever completing his route.
A cursed Grand Duke of the North.
Just hearing those words together already made him sound like the type to say, “You’re the first woman who’s ever treated me this way!”
Definitely not my type.
I preferred sweet, cheerful sunshine puppy boys, thank you very much.
Lenox, I love you! Live happily ever after with Daisy! I’ll officiate the wedding!
“Why’s he coming this time anyway? I hate even being in the same city as him…”
“Who knows? Maybe he really is looking for a bride.”
“As if anyone would ever marry him!”
Wow. That’s unbelievably harsh…
At that moment, I suddenly felt bad for this faceless character while simultaneously becoming intensely curious about him.
